Replace Reverse Light Switch Wiring

When I performed my driveshaft and shifter assembly repair, I didn’t take enough care to secure the reverse light switch wiring. The excess slack quickly got tangled up in the driveshaft, causing it to wear and break. Thus, my reverse lights were rendered inoperable.

Also, when torquing down the guibo nuts, I had a feeling one was stripped as it kept spinning and the torque wrench would not click. My understanding was that these nuts and bolts were single use, so I went ahead and ordered new replacements for all of them in anticipation of dropping the exhaust and driveshaft (again) to repair the reverse light.

Sure enough when I tried to remove the stripped nut, it just kept spinning. It took me a while to figure out how to remove it, especially in the tight area with not many options. Eventually I used some vise grips to apply some longitudinal force on the nut as I wrenched the bolt. Again, these bolts can only point towards the front of the car, so there’s limited space between the guibo and driveshaft flange and the transmission. With this method, I was able to slowly back off the nut and remove the stripped bolt.

I only needed to move the driveshaft out of the way vs. removing it completely. While wrestling with it, the halves became separated and the front half ended up being removed. Thankfully, the two halves were already marked as maintaining its balance was important. I used those marks to extend the lines on the splines to get it lined up for reassembly.

One issue I had was that the replacement bolts, which were the correct part number, were too long. When inserted back to front (the only way), the bolts would not clear the flanges on the transmission and thus would not allow the driveshaft to turn. I could have used multiple washers to get the necessary clearance, but I decided to get the right length bolts locally with the correct strength grade.

I now had functioning reverse lights and my driveshaft was perfectly secured.